2023-08-18 13:21:14
If shortness of breath or cough are among the most common symptoms associated with a long Covid, a 33-year-old patient reports having his legs turning blue and marked with tingling for several months.
After fatigue and loss of smell, blue legs? A man, with long Covid, developed an unusual symptom giving his legs a blue color, researchers from the University of Leeds reveal, in an article published in the medical journal The Lancet, on August 12th. This is the first reported case of this type in a patient suffering from long Covid.
If the link between this symptom and long Covid is not currently proven, scientists believe it is likely. So far, the most common symptoms associated with long Covid are feeling tired, effortless shortness of breath, persistent cough or multiple pains. The long Covid also has consequences on the nervous system which regulates blood pressure and heart rate.
We speak of long Covid when the symptoms persist beyond 4 weeks following the start of the infection, according to Health Insurance.
Heavy legs and tingling sensation
The 33-year-old patient has been suffering from “rapid purple discoloration” of the legs for six months, according to the scientists who examined him. The phenomenon occurs when the thirty-something stands upright.
“(The patient) reported that his legs gradually became heavier, tingled, itchy and darker in color,” the researchers report.
“Redness” also sometimes appears on his feet. He only needs to sit or lie down and the symptoms disappear within a few minutes.
A blood circulation problem
The man has a “striking case of acrocyanosis”, an arterial disease caused by a spasm of small blood vessels in the skin, when he “had not experienced it before his infection with Covid-19”, underlines the researcher and co-author of the study Manoj Sivan, in a press release.
For doctor Bruce Hirsch, “many people with long Covid have their autonomic nervous system upset” and in some cases “are unable to maintain their vascular tone”, he says in the medical journal MedPageToday.
The patient was also diagnosed as suffering from postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS), since suffering from Covid-19. It is a dysautonomia, or a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system causing an increase in the heart rate, to more than 30 beats per minute, following 10 minutes spent in a standing position.
Raising awareness of the disease associated with long Covid
“Patients who experience this may not be aware that (blue legs) are potentially a symptom of long Covid and dysautonomia,” Dr Manoj Sivan points out.
“Similarly, clinicians may not be aware of the link between acrocyanosis and Covid long,” he adds.
“We need to ensure that dysautonomia is better known in long Covid cases so that clinicians have the tools they need to manage patients appropriately”, calls the doctor.
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